The Dodgers may be staring at a Tarik Skubal miss this offseason, but that doesn’t mean they’d sit still. One projection has Los Angeles shifting its attention to another left-hander and handing out a hefty contract in the process.
Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly predicted the New York Mets will land Skubal on a nine-year, $387 million deal, making him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history. Even if that happens, the Dodgers would still have plenty of firepower in a rotation built around Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, and other options. But Kelly sees them spending big anyway.
In his projection, the Dodgers sign Trevor Rogers to a five-year, $110 million contract with a player opt-out after the season.
At first glance, Rogers looks like an unusual candidate for that kind of money. He put up a 4.03 ERA this year, and before 2026 he had never topped 133 innings in any of his first six seasons. Then again, he logged 169.2 innings in 2026, and Kelly pointed to the stretches that made Rogers look much more dangerous than the overall numbers suggest.
“The best glimpses of Rogers make him look like a frontline starter.”
That case starts with the left-hander’s track record. Rogers posted a 2.67 ERA in his 2021 rookie season, then followed that with a 1.81 ERA in 18 starts last year. He also finished 2026 on a stronger note, working to a 3.52 ERA in 13 starts after the All-Star break.
Kelly compared the idea to the five-year, $118 million deal the Phillies gave Zack Wheeler seven years ago. Wheeler had a 3.77 ERA across five seasons with the Mets before blossoming into one of the game’s top aces after changing teams.
Los Angeles would not be chasing Rogers with the expectation that he suddenly becomes a 30-start workhorse. Yamamoto is the only Dodgers pitcher to clear 141 innings over the last four seasons, which tells you plenty about how they manage workloads.
“If a team thinks it can get the most out of Rogers-and won’t be turned off by the fact that he probably won’t pitch 200 innings a season-it will be the Dodgers,” Kelly theorized. “The deal projected might seem rich, but if Rogers puts it all together, it will be a bargain.”
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